My Trumpet Pawns Yours
by IzzyDizzyLi
Summary: A story about a boy trapped in a brass cage, and the girl who found him. Adventure and romance await them, for Forchester High Marching Band has some godly influences. T for safety... because, well, it's marching band!
1. INTRO

Alrighty, this is something I am actually activly working on. Updates may be slow, but they will happen!

This is a story I'm doing on DeviantArt, and I decided to bring it to FanFiction. :) There are pictures that go along with this story, but you'll just have to visit my dA account to see them :P

* * *

Intro

Pastel colored clouds stretch for mile upon miles, as far as the boy can see. The sky, the ground, everywhere the boy looks, he sees the clouds. So close, yet if he tried to reach out and touch them, he'd never feel a thing.

The boy knows exactly where he is. The gods have summoned his spirit. It wasn't the first time it had happened. He had gotten into a lot of trouble with them, and he was still in the early part of his 20 year sentence.

Two towering figured rise up out of the clouds. The woman, graceful yet proud, looks scornfully down upon the boy. The man, one of those people who practically radiate control over anyone who dares come within their presence, smiles cockily in a way that would make the boy incredibly angry if he were in a better position.

"Boy!" starts the man, "I, the mighty Cronious, Lord and Master of the Gods, and Thamillia, Godess of the Trumpet, have summoned you here today for a very specific reason."

"For a full year you have behaved well," continues Thamillia. "I am suprised that a delinquent like you haven't tried harder to rebel."

_Not like I could rebel,_ the boy thought bitterly. He bit his lip to hold back the comment, but slightly flinches as he bites a little too hard. It had been a while since he'd had a lip to actually bite. He was out of practice, so to speak.

"The gods have decided to be merciful, and give you a gift. I, the mighty Cronious, bestow upon you the right to your voice once more!"

A flash, a mighty rumble, then nothing. The boy knew better than to be a smartass. He bows down before the two powerful gods and says, "Thank you, my Lord and Lady.

"I hope you do not try to take advantage of our gift, or we will be forced to take it away," Thamillia says with a glare. "Now, return to the brass prison I encased your soul into!"

And with that said, the boy experiences the sensation of falling, falling, falling. His stomach flips uncomfortably; he feels as if he's going to be sick. But he treasures these few moments of feeling human, for he knows in an instant, he won't have a stomach that can flip or a mouth which he can use to be sick with.

Just as suddenly as it had come, it went. No longer did he have arms to bend, hair to flip, or a mouth to speak with. He wasn't even human even more.

Once again, back to the confines of the blasted case. Once again, back to having valves that get sticky, tubes that contain spit that's not his own, and a big, obnoxious bell.  
Once again, back to being a trumpet. The boy sighs, and is shocked. He _actually_ had sighed. He sang a few bars, recited a couple of lines from his favorite song, and instantly became elated. The gods had done it! His voice was back! No longer would he have to stay silent!

The boy heard his owner mutter something, and realized he'd better be quiet. Talking trumpets were unnatural, and he didn't want his owner screaming and causing a scene at two in the morning. No, he'd wait for tomorrow. If he had a mouth, he would've smiled. Tomorrow would be an interesting day indeed.

* * *

Ta Da! :D Based off of an RP with my best friend Jenny! Tell me what you think! Comments and constructive criticism are appreciated, but flames will be used to roast marshmellows.


	2. 1: Copper Rose and a Gorgeous Smile

Chapter 1-Copper Rose and a Gorgeous Smile

Afternoon sun and sweet summer air drifted in through the wide-open window. A bird landed on a tree branch nearby and peered in at a girl who had slept nearly the whole day. All was quiet and all was peaceful, until the girl woke up and looked at her clock.

"THREE O' CLOCK? NO WAY!"

Sierra jumped out of bed and pillaged through her room for the special outfit she had picked out for the day: a light green tee with an owl on it and a brown pair of shorts. You see, today wasn't just any old July day. Today was the first day of pre-band camp practices. It was going Sierra's first day being a member of the Forchester High Marching Band too. The marching band was famous for being both the best and the smallest band in the area. In fact, members say that the reason they're so good is that there are such few people in it.

Sierra found her outfit hanging out with some dust bunnies under her bed. She pulled it on, and ran a brush through her long, crimson hair. Then she pulled it up into a cute but functional ponytail. A glance into her mirror showed her that her eyes were green today. She smiled. All her best days occured when her eyes were green.

She sighed. Now she only had two hours left until the start of practice. Not hardly enough time to get on the internet, play some video games, and read the latest manga she had picked up (Tegami Bachi volume 2) like she had planned. She looked over to her trumpet, and it hit her that she hadn't gotten it out since the last band class two months ago.

Sierra had recieved her trumpet a few days before eighth grade. She had actually found it before then, lying under a tree in the park. Of course, as soon as she had brought it home, her parents insisted on finding the owner of such a nice trumpet. For weeks, flyers of a found trumpet had been posted all over the town, and Sierra was constantly asking strangers "Hey, did you loose your trumpet?". However, no one claimed it, so her family gave up. Personally, Sierra thought that anyone careless enough to leave their trumpet at the park and never try to get it back didn't deserve the trumpet at all.

Sierra affectionatly called her trumpet "Laurence". Laurence was an outstanding trumpet, oddly enough. He played perfectly, his valves hardly ever needed oiling, and his copper rose finish was still as shiny as if Sierra had just recieved it from the factory. Another weird thing she noticed about Laurence was that he was always warm. She had a feeling that he would still be warm if she burried him in snow for a whole day. Not that would ever try though.

Sierra did have a slight urge to play Laurence, but the pull of her computer was just too strong. She'd be playing him for four hours this evening though, so she figured it'd be alright if she numbed her brain with the internet for a while.

* * *

Soon enough, Sierra found herself standing at the Forchester High band room's door. Opening it unleashed a wave of talking. Everyone was happily talking to each other. Everyone seemed to know each other. Everyone was everyone's firend. She felt like an outsider. Was she really going to be a part of this? Accepted into this?

Shyly, she took a seat and glanced around. She recognized a few upperclassmen who had gone to her middle school at some point and at least half of the freshmen from middle school concerts and such. No one from her school and in her grade, obviously. She was the only one from Misty Oaks Middle School this year.

Without anyone to talk to, Sierra decided to get out Laurence and do some warming up. She probably needed it after a solid two months of no playing. She opened the case and began lifting Laurnce out.

"Ugh, finally! Geez Sierra, don't you realize that it's extremely cramped in there?"

Did her trumpet just SPEAK? She squealed and dropped her trumpet. Luckily, it landed with a plop into the case, and didn't attract nearly as much attention as it would have if it had hit the floor.

"Oh, drop me why don't you?"

Maybe she had just eaten something weird at La Carreta's yesterday. Trumpets don't speak. They can't speak! They didn't have vocal chords or mouths or-

"Hey! You a freshman trumpet too?"

Sierra looked up and saw a blonde-haired boy with a gorgeous smile. His cheerful aurora whiped her mind of thoughts of speaking instruments. She recognized him from the many middle school concerts she had attended, but never had she actually had the opportunity to speak to him. "Yeah, I'm Sierra."

He gave her an encouraging thumbs-up. "Cool! I'm Kale, also a freshman trumpet. Nice to meet you!"

"Yeah, I remember you!"

"We've met before? Oh yeah! You're that girl who got beaned in the head by Kerry's trombone!"

Not something Sierra would exactly like to be remembered by, but hey, she wasn't going to complain. She giggled and said, "Yep, that's me. That really hurt."

Kale laughed. "I bet so! Man, that thing really whacked you! It looked like you were actually bleeding!"

She would have pointed out that she actually did bleed, but the director, Mr. Dugger, called for practice time to start. First up were sectionals. There was a mad scramble to put together instruments and find section leaders. Kale held up his own trumpet, a faded silver Stratavarius, and said, "C'mon Sierra. Let's go meet our section."

* * *

It wasn't to hard to find the trumpet section leader. For one, he was tall. Extremely tall. Towering over everybody else tall. He was thin too. His tee shirt hang off of him like drapes. He had an asian look about him, black hair, brown eyes, the works.

Another thing that made him the obvious section leader was that he was waving a golden trumpet over his head and exclaiming, "Trumpeteers, over here!"

After the chaos was over, Sierra found herself standing with five other people, including her giant of a section leader. He'd led them out the backdoor to a huge oak tree. Carved into it was "Trumpets go here".

"Well, sit down guys. Make yourselves comfortable." They all dropped like flies when he said this. "We use this sectional time to pretty much introduce ourselves. I'm Brandon, a senior and your section leader this year."

A girl with two blonde pigtails introduced herself next. "I'm Jennet, also a senior and ithis/iclose to being section leader this year." She playfully pouted at Brandon. He flashed a charming smile at her. It was obvious that they were really close.

A short-haired burnet with a sunflower clip in her hair was the next to speak. "I'm Alyssa, a junior," was all she said.

The next boy, a dark-haired boy who gave off an emo kind of vibe, also spoke very little. "I'm Colton, a sophmore."

Jennet put an arm around each of them. "C'mon guys! Be a little more cheerful! It's finally marching band time again! This year is going to be the best year ever!"

"Hey, let the fresh meat, err, I mean, freshmen speak." Brandon smiled at Kale and Sierra, encouraging them to speak up.

Kale did so first. "I'm Kale! And as you said, I'm a freshman."

"I'm Sierra. Nice to meet you guys!"

Brandon beamed. "Ok, now that intros are clean out of the way, time to let Kale and Sierra in on a little tradition: The Forchester High Trumpet Scetion Initiation."

Jennet piped up, "Oh, remember when we did it? We got the cops called onto us!"

Brandon laughed. "Yeah, good times! Oh, and then-"

As the two of them talked, Kale whispered to Sierra, "I wonder what this whole thing's about."

That was exactly something Sierra wanted to know. She gulped. What would they be forced to do? She hoped it was nothing to get the police on their own trail.


	3. 2: Clone 1 and Clone 2

Chapter 2- Clone 1 and Clone 2

"Will you just tell us what the hell we have to do?" Kale asked.

Brandon laugh. "Right, right! Ok, so, you guys see that cute girl over there?" He pointed at the redheaded alto section leader. "That's Izzy, and she usually as a good supply of reeds on her."

Jennet continued, "The task is really simple. Both of you steal a reed, and bring it to that abandoned music store down the road."

"In the basement," Brandon picked up, "are some shrines dedicated to various intruments. Just sit the stolen reeds on the Trumpet Shrine at excetly one o' clock tonight, and you're done!"

"It's that simple!" Jennet smiled, but then flashed a serious look. "Oh, and don't mess with the shrines. There was an idiotic sophmore who graffitied the Trumpet Shrine. We never saw him again."

Sierra gulped. "Seriously?"

"Yep," Brandon answered shortly. There was a look of... was it pain? Was it sorrow? Whatever it was, the expression left his face a second later, and he changed the topic.

"Also, don't let anyone else know about this. Sure Izzy knows aout it, but alto section leaders are the only non-trumpeteers who get to find out about it. Not even the director knows." Both Kale and Sierra nodded in agreement.

A senior girl with messy brown hair approached the group of trumpeteers. "Hey guys! Sectionals are over, so you'd better come back to the band room."

"Yes sir!" Brandon gave her a mock salute.

"I have the power to make you run now, Brandon. Don't make me use it!" Despite this threat, she smiled.

Jennet laughed. "Oh, we're sooo scared of your drum major powers Kristy!"

"You know, you were way more intimidating when you had a sousaphone on your shoulder," Brandon commented.

"Shut up and get your butts back to the band room!" Kristy the Drum Major made her way to the alto section.

"Well, you heard Kristy. Let's go!" Colton commented.

"Hey, that was my line! I'm the section leader."

Brandon and Colton poked fun at each other all the way back to the band room.

* * *

During the first break, Sierra met up with Kale to discusss how they'd manage to steal a reed from the Alto section leader. They thought of a lot of ideas, but all were put down when they noticed how protective of her stuff-including reeds- Izzy was.

Kale sighed, frustrated. "This is going to be impossible! I mean, look how close she is to her case! There's no way we could get at even a piece of lint under her watch!"

"I have to admit, this does seem a little impossible," Sierra said in a defeated tone of voice.

"Why, nothing is impossible!" said a voice from behind.

"All you need is a little help!" said another.

Sierra and Kale both turned around. Two identicle twin boys weilding identicle silver mellophones were standing there. They had evidently eavesdropped upon the two trumpeteers. Their hair was sandy brown and streaked with darker brown highlights, and they both wore a cocky smile.

Sierra gulped. She hoped they hadn't mentioned too much about their initiation. "Umm... how long have you guys been listening to us?"

The one on the right laughed. "Long enough to know that you're trying to steal something out of our section leader's case."

"But short enough to be completely unaware as to why you'd want to steal from her," finished the other.

"Butt out, Clone 1 and Clone 2," Kale growled. "Quit eavesdropping on us!"

"Oh, come on!"

"We can help!"

"You see, we don't much appreciate our section leader just yet."

"And we'd be happy to create a distraction."

"No tha-"

"Hold on Kale," interrupted Sierra. "If you could create a distraction for us, we'd appreciate it a lot!" She smiled charmingly.

"Ok then!" exclaimed one.

"One distraction, coming right up!" declared the other.

"By the way, I'm Cody, and this is Justin. We're both sophmores!"

"Good luck telling the difference between us!"

The twins happily skipped away. Kale shook his head. "I don't like those guys. They were big troublemakers at my school. I'm surprised the director even let them join marching band."

"Oh come on, they can't be that ba..." Sierra's words trailed off as Kale shot her a look. She was saved the trouble of responding to this new side of Kale, though, because Kristy yelled over the buzz of noise that break was over.

Kale flashed a smile. "It's a long story Sierra. Come on, let's get back to our seats."

Sierra decided not to bring up the twins again.

* * *

When practice was over, Sierra and Kale quickly noticed what the twins meant by distraction. The devious pair had done the unthinkable. They were playing a simple game of catch. That is, a game of catch with one of their mellophones. Sierra mouth dropped, and Kale shook his head muttering, "I knew it'd be something like this."

This caught Izzy's attention almost instantaneously. "You idiots! What do you think you're doing?" She stormed over to the pair, who grinned, split up, and ran.

Sierra couldn't help but to watch the twins. She was mesmorized by their movements. They seemed almost cat-like. Both were very athletic. One leaped over a garbage can. Another slid neatly under the band truck. It was like watching a well-practiced show. They laughed and seemed to enjoy remaining just out of reach of their furious section leader.

Kale poked her on the arm, which finally distracted her. "Hey, Sierra, I got the goods." He held up two perfect vandoren reeds.

Sierra smiled and took one. "Right. Thanks Kale! Now all we have to do is get these to the music store."

"Yep! Should be a piece of cake!" Kale gave her a cheesy smile-and-thumbs-up combo. "Meet you at 12:45 tonight?"

"Yeah sure. Bye Kale!"

* * *

Sierra was about to fall asleep when she heard him again.

The time was about 8:00. Sierra wanted to get enough rest for her meeting with Kale that night. The sun was in the process of setting, and a nice cool breeze pleasently fowed through her wide open window.

She burried her face in her pillow and, just before she slipped into the dream relm, a voice stated simply, "Oh boy, tonight's going to be eventful, isn't it Sierra?"

As if hit by an electric spark, Sierra sat straight up in two seconds flat. "W-Who's there? I swear, I have a trumpet and I'm not afraid to use it!"

If Laurence had eyes, he would have rolled them. "Oh yeah, cause it's very possible to hit me with my own body."

Sierra was taken aback by his words. What did he mean by that? She was confused. Was it possible that Laurence was actually speaking to her?

She jumped out of bed and laid her case out flat. One clasp lifted, then the other. She lifted the lid. Her Laurence seemed just the same as ever...

"You can stop gawking at me now, Sierra. It's not like you haven't seen me before."

Sierra screamed and backed away from her trumpet, "H-how in the world? You're a trumpet! You can't speak!"

"Funny story actually. You see, I'm not actually a trumpet. I'm supposed to be a junior right now, if I remember correctly. Oh, and by the way, my name isn't Laurence! That's the stupidest name I've ever heard! Please call me by my proper name: Xander."

Sierra shook her head. If she were the kind of person to believe such things, she would have thought that she had simply fallen asleep and was having a very bizzare dream. But she knew that this wasn't a dream. "How?"

Xandered sighed impatiently. "I did some stupid stuff last year and... I was sort of turned into a trumpet."

"Oh! You're that sophmore Jennet mentioned! The one who graffittied a shrine or something."

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious." This seemed like a sensitive subject to him, so Sierra decided to drop the subject. Instead, she asked a very funny question. "What's it like to be a trumpet?"

If Xander had a mouth, we would have grinned. "Well, first off, it feels very weird to be blown in every day." Sierra held her mouth to keep herself from laughing. " The case is very cramped. Especially when you're locked in it for two months straight." She mumbled an apology. " It's frustrating to not be able to do anything anymore." She nodded. She could understand this one. "And you should really get to bed. Don't want to oversleep and miss your date with Kale."

"Ri- HEY! It's NOT a date!" Sierra yelled, embarassed.

"Oh sure. Whatever floats your boat," snickered Xander. "You're blushing, by the way."

Sierra slammed her case shut in response. "Shut up Lau- err... Xander!"

"You know it's true." Xander's voice could barely be heard through the case.

Sierra stumbled back into bed, her face still covered in a reddish tint. She wouldn't ever admit it to anyone, execially not to her own trumpet, but she secretly was looking foreward to her late-night meeting.


	4. 3: Charm in the Dark

Chapter 3- Charm in the Dark

Sierra's senses were sharper at night. Streetlights casted eeire lighting on things that normally wouldn't make her jump. Shadows in alleyways were like strange curtains, masking unseen horrors. While passing one, she could have sworn that she heard someone coughing.

She had a funny feeling that someone was watching her, and this made her all the more paranoid. It's not like she had walked up to her parents and said, "Hey guys, I'm going to sneak out at midnight tonight to break into some abandoned music store as a test by my section leaders. Can I have a can of pepper spray?"

Footsteps could be heard from behind. She pretended not to notice though. It was probably just a homeless person or something... right? _Tap. Tap. Tap._ They got louder, closer. Sierra couldn't stand it anymore and turned to look. Yet no one was there...

"Haha, you're just tired Sierra. No one would be following you!" she told herself.

She continued, and she didn't hear anymore footsteps behind her. A bit of relief crept through her body. She still wasn't safe, however. Her pace quickened. It would be best to hurry and meet up with Kale.

A vice-like grip around her arm occured just as she passed a dirty alleyway. Sierra went into an automatic mode and screamed, struggling to get free from whoever had her. An arm went around her, and the hand gripping her arm moved up to cover her mouth.

"Chill Sierra! You're going to wake up the whole neighborhood!"

That voice was familiar. That was Kale's voice!

Sierra was still numb from fear as Kale slowly released her. A smile crossed his face, and it was clear that he found her fear amusing. His mouth opened slightly as he was going to laugh. Instead, a grunt of pain came from that opening.

"You idiot! Don't do that again!" Sierra's leg was still slightly raised from where she had kicked him in the shin. The adrenalin from her fright had given her kick a little extra power.

Kale landed with a thump on the ground as he held his leg. "Oww, oww, oww! I'm sorry!"

"Yeah, you'd better be!" Sierra crossed her arms and sent him a Level Three Death Glare.

"Just one question: do you always talk to yourself?" His comment earned him another kick to the arm, luckily not as hard as the blow he took to the leg.

When Sierra's anger and Kale's pain faded away, she learned that it was Kale who had been stalking her. He had taken an alleycat route and met up with her to scare her. Sierra was still annoyed that he'd do something like that, but she was also relieved to finally be with someone. Before she knew it, the old music store was staring them down.

"Aww... it looks so... abandoned," commented Sierra.

"Abandoned" was the right word to describe it. Graffiti covered every inch of the front of the building. The tan paint was peeling off of the walls to reveal a dirty sort of gray coloring. Remnants of bright neon signs were still hung in the windows, all faded and about ready to fall off (several had already). The missing doors and the windows revealed that the inside wasn't completely devoid of musical items. A few ripped music books layed on the floor, covered in dust. A single case of reeds was the only things left on the shelves.

"Who would cover the front of a building with musical terms?" ask Kale.

"I dunno... seems like a weird topic for graffiti," agreed Sierra. As far as she knew, gangsters did not write things like "8 to 5" and "sotto voce" on buildings.

"Well, no use just standing here. Time's ticking away, after all!" Kale strode confidently forward. Sierra followed, making sure to stay close.

They explored the inside of the music store very throughly, but as far as they could tell, the building didn't have a basement. There were other rooms, but they were just storage rooms and such (Kale had the unfortunate luck of finding the public restrooms).

"There isn't a basement anywhere!" Sierra cried out in frustration.

"You don't think they were just trying to fool us, do you?" Kale wondered aloud.

"I bet they did! How mean!" She stamped her foot out of anger, and to her surprise, the ground seemed hollow underneath.

"Huh?" Kale kicked a music book out of the way and found a round handle. The duo looked at each other, grinning.

Kale did the honors of opening the trapdoor. A steep wooden staircase spiraled deep underground into an abyss of darkness. Sierra flashed her flashlight down into it, but the darkness just seemed to eat up her light. She couldn't see very far down at all.

Kale gulped. "This is messed up... but come on."

Sierra nodded and followed. Little did she know that she wouldn't walk back up those stairs...

* * *

"Kale, I have a bad feeling about these stairs."

"It's ok. Old stuff always creaks. Just keep the light shined in front of me."

"You think we're almost down there?"

"We've been going forever! I hope we're almost down there!"

_Crack_

"Umm... Kale?" Sierra stopped for a second, afraid to go on. IScrew this initiation, I just want to get out of here alive!/I she thought to herself.

_Crack_

"Yeah?" Kale stopped and turned to face her. Concern crossed his face, and the flashlight gave him a completely different look.

_CRASH!_

The board underneath Sierra's foot gave away, and for an instant she was falling. Kale was quick and grabbed her hand, saving her from actually falling through. Her flashlight wasn't as lucky, and it went out with a slight thump somewhere below. The pair was thrown into suffocating darkness.

With some effort, Kale pulled her up. The fall had shaken her, and she loss balance for a quick second. Kale wasn't expecting her to fall against him, and the pair tumbled down the stairs. In the pitch darkness, Sierra held onto the only thing that wasn't moving: Kale's body. Not that she actually needed to. He was keeping a pretty good grip on her as well.

With a smack, Sierra's back hit a cold, hard surface, and they rolled a little further before coming to a stop. The pair laid there on the cold, hard floor, completely breathless. Sierra let her forehead rest on Kale's collarbone.

For a while, the only thing that could be heard was their breathing. Then Kale asked, "You ok?"

"Y-Yeah. You?"

"Yep."

Kale stood up and pulled Sierra to her feet. As soon as they were up, an oil lamp hanging on the wall flared to life.

"Did you see that?" Kale exclaimed.

"Umm... there's got to be some kind of explanation for that!" Sierra blurted out.

Kale sighed. "Well, I guess there's no where to go except forward. Come on."

The two made their way through the tunnel before them. It reminded Sierra of the pictures of mines she had always seen. There was even a railroad, for some odd reason. As they walked, they pretended not to notice the oil lamps that kept flickering to life or the ooze coming out of cracks in the walls.

The tunnel got lower and lower, and eventually emptied out into a cave. It wasn't a very big cave. Sierra and Kale had to duck slightly to avoid hitting any stalactites.

"Woah... check out all these shrines! There must be at least fifty!" Kale went up to one of the little shrines. Bits and pieces of junk littered the pedestal. Things like a wad of paper, a broken ligature, and a piece of metal that looked suspiciously like it had come off a clarinet. The only thing that seemed of value was the statue of a marcher weilding a clarinet. The stone was an odd, black color. It had silver streaks throughout it though.

"The carver paid a lot of attention to detail," observed Sierra.

"Come on, it's less than two minutes until one o' clock." Kale gestured with his hand, and together they searched for the trumpet shrine. The statues of players were very helpful, but there were so many that it took a while to find the right shrine.

"Here! Here it is! I found it!" They approached the trumpeet shrine. It had its fair share of clutter, like an empty bottle of Blue Juice and a severly dented mouthpiece. Kale glanced at his watch, and slapped the two alto reeds down just as 1:00 came on the digital display.

They stood there for a second, hardly daring to breath. Ten seconds passed. Then twenty. Finally, Kale muttered, "Well THAT was very anti-climatic. Looks like nothing's going to happen. Let's go Sierra."

She nodded and reluctantly followed. She had a funny feeling that something was about to happen...

* * *

_A column of purple smoke rose from beside the shrine. A tall, beautiful woman stepped out of it. She didn't look solid, yet she didn't look like a ghost either. At least, no ghosts that Sierra had ever seen._

_"Young child, I, Tamillia, Goddess of the Mighty Trumpets, have decided to contact you."_

_Sierra couldn't help but to stop and stare. "What the hell?"_

Kale glanced back and noticed that Sierra had stopped. She looked as if she was daydreaming. "Yo! Sierra! Come on, let's go!"

_The woman gave Sierra a friendly smile. "You are the owner of Xander, yes?"_

_Sierra nodded, still unable to believe what was happening._

_"He is a problematic boy. Be sure to take good care of him. Treat him better than any trumpet you have owned. He may seem cold, but I'm sure he will warm up to you. Remember, I have been and will be watching you two."_

Kale was now very worried about Sierra. He picker her up off of the ground bridal style. "Sierra! Wakey wakey! You're ok. Please tell me you're ok..."

_Sierra nodded. "You have my word... umm... my lady."_

_Thamillia laughed. It sounded like bell chimes in a gentle breeze. "I believe your friend is going to have a panic attack. I'd better depart. However, before I leave..."_

_The goddess drew a silver necklace from within the fold of her dress. It had two gold charms on it. One was of a trumpet, and the other was of a feather. She held it up for Sierra to see, then slipped it into her pocket. "Take care of it, young one. Farewell..."_

_Then the world went dark..._

* * *

"Oh god, what do I do? What do I do?"

Sierra shook her head and sat up. She was laying outside of the abandoned music store. Kale was nervously pacing nearby, but stopped when he looked over and saw her awake. A wide smile broke out on his face. "Sierra! You're awake!"

"What... what happened?" She remembered Kale placing the reeds on the shrine, but from there her memory was slightly fuzzy. Wasn't there... someone else who had been down there too? She couldn't remember exactly.

"Well, you were staring off into space, and then you just flat out fainted! I brought you back up, and I've been wondering what to do ever since! Do you realize what time it is? It's four in the morning," He blurted out quickly. "Are you feeling ok? Do you want me to take you home?"

"No, I'm fine, I'm fine. I swear Kale!" She got to her feet.

"You sure?" He was right by her side, ready to catch her should she fall again.

"Yep! Come on, we'd better get home quickly."

"Alright then..."

* * *

"Well, you were certainly out for a while," commented Xander.

"Yeah. Long story," muttered Sierra. She was tired, but she had the feeling she was forgetting about something...

"What? Did you go back to Kale's place for some..."

Sierra blushed. "NO!"

Xander cracked up. "Haha, yeah sure, I'll believe that!"

She rolled over. "Good night Xander."

She could still hear her trumpet laughing, but refused to say anything else to shut him up. Her hand strayed close the her pocket, and she felt something in it. _That's weird... when did I put something in there?_

Her hand clasped around a necklace. She pulled it out of her pocket. "Wow... it's beautiful! When did I get this?"

Sierra put it around her neck, and layed back down. At some point while wondering where she could have gotten it, she drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

"I know where you got that," muttered Xander. "Why would you, of all people, receive Thamillia's Charms?"

* * *

This is all I have so far. :P An update will come sometime, but it will come to DeviantArt faster than FanFiction.


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